MGSA Symposium Returns to Chicago in 2005

Palmer House Hilton Hotel (877-865-5321 or 312-726-7500)
palmerhouse_rooms@hilton.com

The MGSA’s nineteenth international Symposium will be held in Chicago, Illinois from 3-5 November 2005.  In addition to offering a wide variety of papers on multiple aspects of contemporary Hellenic culture, literature, language, history, society, politics, economics and the arts, the Symposium’s featured topics include Greece, Greeks, and Hellenism in the age of transnationalism (borders, migrations and minorities); Greek-Ottoman history; and an assessment of the MGSA and the field of Modern Greek Studies. 

Symposium Highlights:

* Highly acclaimed author Olga Broumas will deliver Thursday night’s Keynote Address.  She will be reading her own poetry as well as from her translations of modern Greek poetry.  The poetry reading will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.

* The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center—the nation’s only museum of its kind—will present an exhibit that takes a historical look at the lives of Chicago’s early Greek immigrants, their relations with other immigrant groups, and the community’s close association with Jane Addams’ famed Hull-House. 

* Guided tours of the Classical Greek collection at the renowned Chicago Art Institute will be led by Dr. Jennifer Tobin, University of Illinois-Chicago. 

* In collaboration with the Chicago Greek Film Festival, the Gene Siskel Film Center and The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, Kyriakos Katzourakis’ docu-drama, The Way to the West (O Dromos pros tin Dysi), will be screened.  Winner of the coveted FIPRESCI award, this innovative docu-drama documents the life of Irina, a woman from the former Soviet Union, who comes to Greece in search of a better life and falls victim to sex slave trafficking. Through a series of personal confessions, her story unfolds, implicating and critiquing the current immigrant and refugee situation in a country that plays a strategic role in migration as a “waiting room” on “the way to the West.”   Director Kyriakos Katzourakis will attend the screening and will participate in a question-and-answer session with the audience.  A reception will follow the event.

This intellectually stimulating conference will be held in the Chicago Loop—the city’s vibrant business and cultural center.  The Symposium will be located at the historic and elegant Palmer House Hilton—North America’s longest continually operating hotel and famous for its lobby’s Beaux Arts ceiling, which was recently restored by a Florentine artisan known for his work on the Sistine Chapel.  Centrally located and easily accessible by public transport from both of Chicago’s airports, the Palmer House is within walking distance of the city’s most popular attractions:  its world-renowned Art Institute, the Ford Center for the Performing Arts-Oriental Theatre, the Chicago Cultural Center, the critically acclaimed Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Center, the Lyric Opera, and Millennium Park with its Frank Gehry-designed band shell.  In and around the Loop are some of Chicago’s finest restaurants and blues clubs—and the city’s world-famous Greek town is only a short walk away.

Rooms at the Palmer House Hilton, located at 17 E. Monroe Street, Chicago, IL 60603, are going quickly!  Participants should call 877-865-5321 or 312-726-7500 (or email palmerhouse_rooms@hilton.com) and request the reduced Modern Greek Studies Association room rate of $US159.00 plus tax (both single and double occupancy).  (Please note that, if you are using the hotel’s on-line service to make your reservation, you will be asked to provide a convention code number—“MGS”—in order to receive the special discounted rate.)  Please bear in mind that the number of rooms available at the special conference rate is limited, and we therefore strongly encourage you to make your reservations immediately.  If you call the hotel to make a reservation, the operator may likely report that no rooms remain in the MGSA block.  If this happens, ask him to seek authorization from management to release a room to you at the MGSA rate.  They will do so but only for a short period of time, and you must ask for this! 

Those conference attendees wishing to share a room with others are encouraged to utilize the MGSA listserv (mgsa-l@uci.edu) in order to make connections with others wishing to do the same.  

How to get to the Palmer House from area airports: 

The Palmer House is easily reached by train, shuttle bus, or taxi from both of Chicago’s airports.  CTA (“El”) trains run from both airports to within a block of the hotel.  From Midway Airport, take the Orange Line to the Adams station.  From O’Hare Airport, take the Blue Line to the Monroe station.  CTA fare is $US1.75 per trip.  More information on Chicago public transportation, including trains, is available at www.transitchicago.com.  Shuttle bus service from Midway and O’Hare airports to the Palmer House is provided by Continental Airport Express ($US18 one-way from Midway, $US23 one-way from O’Hare).  Shuttle reservations and more information are available at www.airportexpress.com.  Taxi service is also available—fares from O’Hare to downtown Chicago are approximately $US40 and from Midway to the Loop approximately $US30.

Pre-registration Information:

The pre-registration deadline for attendees of the Symposium is September 30, 2005.  

Please send this form with your check or money order in US dollars, payable to the “Modern Greek Studies Association/MGSA Symposium,” to Prof. S. Victor Papacosma, MGSA Executive Director, P.O. Box 622, Kent, OH 44240. 

Please type or print clearly 

Name:  _________________________________________________________________

Name on Badge:  _________________________________________________________

Affiliation:  _____________________________________________________________

Address:  _______________________________________________________________

City:  ______________________________________  State:  ______________________

Zip code:  __________________________________  Country:  ____________________

Email:  _________________________________________________________________

Fax:  ___________________________________________________________________

 

Registration by September 30:

 

MGSA member:  $US70.00/€55                                                ______

 

Non- MGSA member (includes

   1-year MGSA membership):  $US100.00/€80                        ______

 

Student Members:  $US30.00/€24                                             ______   *Proof of student status            required

 

Member with Spouse/Non-Academic Guest:  add

    $US30.00/€24                                                                         ______

 

Chicago Art Institute:

Tour of Classical Greek collection at the

Art Institute of Chicago:*  $US10.00/€8                               ______  *This is a special discounted rate which entitles the ticket holder to take the tour as well as to view the museum’s other permanent exhibitions 

 

Screening of The Way to the West: 

General admission: $US9.00/€7                                                  ______

 

Student admission:* $US7.00/€6                                                 ______ *Proof of student status required.

 

 

On-site registration:

MGSA member:  $US90/€71                                                       ______

 

Non-MGSA member (includes

     1-year MGSA membership):  $US120.00/€95                       ______

 

Student Member:  $US40.00/€32                                                ______   *Proof of student status required

 

Member with Spouse/Non-Academic Guest: 

    add $US40.00/€32                                                                   ______

 

 

Single Day Registration:

All:  $US25.00/€20                                                                       ______

 

 

TOTAL                                                                                         ______

 

 

Note: if you are in Greece, the euro equivalent can be delivered to:  Dr. Maria Georgopoulou, Director, Gennadius Library, 61 Souidias St., 106 76 Athens.  Tel. 210/721 0536. 

e-mail: mgeorgopoulou@ascsa.edu.gr

 

Please note that Mrs. Loukia Vassiliou from the Center for Asia Minor Studies will no longer be administering this latter service, which she so graciously provided for so many years.  Dr. Georgopoulou has agreed to undertake this responsibility (to include collection of membership fees).

 

Revised September 28, 2005